Volume 7, Number 2
May 1983

Supplies &c.

Xerox 4000 for Books With Narrow Inner Margins

The rumor that the Xerox 4000 photocopier is no longer available is untrue: Jan Merrill-Oldham of the University of Connecticut in Storrs (203/486-2520) just bought one. This model allows the book to remain open at only a 900 angle while being copied.

Book Jackets With Zippers

For people who like to read where it's rainy, snowy, dusty or dirty, a nameless supplier offers small, medium, large and extra large zippered book jackets with pockets fur the covers and an elastic strip to hold the jacket to the book's spine. Cost: $7 to $9. Phone: 206-624-5599.

For Sale By Owner

• Arno Werner, Ferry Road, Hadlyme, CT 06439 (203/526-9253) is reducing his supply of materials, tools and equipment. He invites inquiries on tools, rolls, paring stones, books on bookbinding (in English and German) and other items.
• Gérard Charrière, 36 West 26th St., New York, NY 10010 (212/675-6784) has a large number of 17th and 18th C. and modern finishing tools for sale. He also has rolls and pellets and small type handle letters. Contact him for a copy of designs and prices.
• Michael Berta, Star Route, Box 7-j, Burr Hill VA 22433 (703/854-5698) writes that he is selling the following equipment:

  Peerless Stamping Press with one single line head and one 6-line head and one gold feeder

  J W & CB Sheridan Press, 4' high with 12 press hoards

  Oversewing machine in excellent condition

  Board cutter, 29" x 21", steel

• Columbia University Bindery has an 18" Triumph paper cutter with stand for sale. The crank handle in front that moves the back gauge is missing. Michael Business Machines of Maryland, the maker, says that model is now $1425 new and the hand crank is available separately. Daylight: 3-1/8"; net weight 170 lbs without stand. Stand is 31" x 28". Contact Thea Hammann, (212) 280-3580. Best offer.

Tools

• Charles Rulfs writes, "Mike Walker (in Vs.) is a delight to deal with and does lovely work (his tools and type). His work is well worth the prices charged. Was pleased to learn of the Ascona tools & materials in ANL last spring--the spirit stove and French paring knife, for instance, are exceptionally good and useful."
• Fine Cut Precision (Unit B, Mill Road Industrial Estate, Southwick, Brighton BN4 1PD) have cut their prices of finishing tools by up to 20 percent. A set of 12 Pt. handle letters, for instance, is now £78.25. They also supply a wide range of hand tools, pallets, gouges and rolls, cut to a high standard, and make tools to order. (This is from the DB Newsletter. It is not known whether they solicit overseas business.)
• The Reviews section of this Newsletter describes a new tool-copying method, reported in The New Bookbinder. A catalog from Peter Smith ("PSAP Enterprises") has been received, along with the information that many items have been taken from Bernard Middleton's tools. Pallet 1/P12, for instance, is the one that makes the new leather across the hinge of a rebacked book look wrinkled; it goes for £15.00 (about $25). Single line fillets are about $34. Write to PSAP Enterprises, 39 High St., Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 1LQ, England.

Dutch Book Cloth

On April 1, Harcourt Bindery reduced the price of the Van Heek textiles it carries. Average bolt length is 108 yards, and for 1 to 4 bolts, the prices now are:

Domestic Marbled Paper

Talin Bookbindery, 1990 Rt. 6A, PD Box 314, Brewster, MA 02631 (617/896-6444, is accepting wholesale and retail orders for their marbled papers. Catalogs are $2.50 each. "The papers are marbled by hand, using the finest pigments and papers. They are marbled in the traditional Turkish manner."

Unguent S

Triad Chemical Co. (544 Oak Ridge Rd., Clark, NJ 07066) claims to have developed two superior leather preservatives. "Retan Leather" is a neatsfoot oil liquid blend of polydimethylsiloxanes presenting minimum fire hazard, low order of toxicity, no handling problem nor objectionable odor; it is for more deteriorated leather, and costs $12.70 for 4 ounces, which will do a dozen or more books. "Leather Forever" is a liquid blend of polydimethylsiloxanes, presenting no fire hazard, a low order of toxicity, no handling problem or objectionable odor; it is for newer books, and costs $9.45 for 3 ounces, which will do several books. (Manufacturer's descriptions.)

The manufacturer typically does not offer any evidence that this new product will preserve leather any better than other unguents, which are all ineffective, if one takes seriously the leather research reported in this Newsletter in April 1981. This is a new compound, containing silicone; best to wait until it is evaluated in the professional literature before trying it on anything of value.

Chemical Indicators

• The famous Barrow test kit has gone downhill since the 1970s. One purchased last December from Applied Science Labs, Inc., Ana-Bio Laboratories, 2216 Hull St., Richmond, VA 23224, 1) was outmoded, providing a single test solution for groundwood instead of the 2-solution version that enables the test to be useful and accurate for longer than six months; 2) came only after a delay of two months; 3) has a flimsy box with a top that won't fit--not good when one of the bottles in it contains such a strong acid; and 4) has no instructions with it, not even any instructions for finding the instructions in the little Barrow booklet, or a warning to put the groundwood indicator bottle in the refrigerator so it won't explode.
• The Gallard-Schlesinger Chemical Manufacturing Corporation, 584 Mineola Ave., Carle Place, NY 11S14, has an excellent range of indicator strips including 14 kinds of non-bleed pH indicators and Chlortesmo paper for testing chlorine in rinse water (sensitivity 1 mg chlorine per liter, which roughly equals 1 part per million). Also potassium iodide starch papers, relative humidity indicators, and test papers to detect alum, copper, iron, peroxide, sulfur compounds (SO₂, SO₃, H₂SO₃,) in air and solution, zinc, potassium, and other substances. The sulfite test paper is for the rapid determination of sulfites and sulfur dioxide in the gaseous phase. The white paper turns pink to brick-red in the presence of sulfite and free SO A box of 100 strips costs $10.60. Minimum order $25.5. Gallard-Schlesinger is the exclusive distributor for Macherey-Nagel, Düren, Germany. Their telephone number is 516/333-S600 but sometimes they don't answer.

Encapsulating Machines

Literature has been collected from three (the three?) manufacturers or distributors of machines for sealing polyester encapsulations: the Minter/Malosh ultrasonic welder, the CRI Polyweld and the University Products Radiowelder. They are described below in the suppliers' own words.

• Minter/Malosh Ultrasonic Welder. Polyester encapsulation has become the most widely accepted technique for the preservation of fragile documents. Ultrasonic welding is one method of sealing the edges of two sheets. Ultrasonics is a process that is widely used in the plastics industry for the assembly of parts. This method of sealing has been available to the conservation field for the past three years.

  The basic principle is friction. Standard 60 cycles per second of electrical current is increased by a generator to 40,000 cycles per second. This electrical impulse is converted to a mechanical vibration which is transferred through the tip of what is called the horn. Opposite the horn is an anvil. With the two sheets of polyester between the horn and the anvil, a weld is produced by the vibration or hammering action. [An earlier article with diagram is in the April 1980 issue of AN.]

  The first machines of this type required the critical adjustment of a micrometer to set the gap between the hero and the anvil. Recent improvements, however, have eliminated this rather troublesome operation. Now the welding head is mounted on a self-adjusting slide. The welding head is transported along shafts by a variable speed reversible motor which is controlled by a foot switch. A magnetic rubber blanket holds the polyester and the document to a stainless steel work surface during the welding operation. The magnetic blanket also eliminates any air that might become trapped inside. The machine is 25" x 48" x 12" overall, while the work surface is 15" x 48". There are two auxiliary tables--one 9" x 48" and the other 15" x 4B"--to permit the encapsulation of documents up to 38" square. However, larger documents can be encapsulated by simply repositioning the material.

  Another recent improvement has been a modification which allows the weld to be made up to 9" from the edge of the polyester. The material can also be rolled, if necessary, to weld to the center of a larger sheet. A special modification of the basic model would permit even deeper welds.

  Ultrasonics can easily weld two sheets of 2, 3, 4, or 5 nil polyester (Do Pont Mylar Type 0 or ICI Melinex 516). For larger documents that require additional support, a sheet of 2 or 3 mile can be welded to a sheet of 5, 7 or 9 mile.

  The ultrasonic welder was designed primarily for the encapsulation of book leaves and archival documents. It takes less than two minutes to completely encapsulate an 8½" x 11" document in 3 nil polyester, allowing for a binding stub. The machine will pay for itself after approximately 6,000 items are encapsulated.

• Model B-50 Polyester Sealing Machine, from Conservation Resources International, Inc. We designed the Polyweld^TM B-50 specially for use in the conservation laboratory. We talked with conservators in large institutions, commercial operations and small university workshops. There were no conflicting requirements among the people we interviewed, and, not surprisingly, there was considerable concurrence among the conservators about features they did want. These features included simplicity, reliability, speed of operation, the ability to encapsulate 48" maps, and economy. We feel the Model B-SO excels in all of these areas.
• [It] can seal 100" per cycle, with a maximum single length of 50 inches.... The complete sealing cycle, start to finish, is only 3½ seconds. This means you can produce, for example, ten 6 x 9" polyester folders in one 3½ second cycle.... Two people performing the same (or different) task can use the machine at the same time....

  We have eliminated the need to resort to cooling fans (which tend to blow the polyester sheets out of alignment before they can be sealed) or cumbersome cold water pipes or any other superfluous devices to cool the polyester before you can remove it and start another cycle.

  We use a special coating on the Model B-50 to eliminate the static electricity buildup in the polyester film. This makes the polyester much easier to handle, which results in increased efficiency and eliminates shocks to the operator.... We have provided separate pressure clamp alignment and sealing cycle operations. This allows you to put 10 or 20 items in the machine, align and clamp them, and still make a quick visual check before pressing the sealing cycle button.... It is easy to operate. Plug the machine into an ordinary wall outlet, insert two or more polyester sheets and push the cycle button. There is no special training period or skill required to operate this machine.

  It is super reliable. We were able to continually refine this machine in our factory over a considerable period of time, while producing tens of thousands of seals.

  [In May 1982 it was priced at $6,950. The principle utilized is radiation-induced heat.]

  Conservation Resources is at 1111 N. Royal St., Alexandria, VA 22314.

• University Products' Radiowelder. The exclusive radiowelder seals by safe electromagnetic radiation which produces flexible fusion welds.... Seals edges in approximately 4 seconds. Call or writes University Products, P0 Box 101, Holyoke, MA 01041. Oct. 1982

  Cat. No.	Maximum Sealing Length	Oct. 1982 Price
  565-0900	9"	$2300.00
  565-1500	15"	3200.00
  565-4200	42"	9100.00

For Environmental Control in Transit and Storage

• Fabwell Pty. [= Proprietary] Ltd. of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, sells a fiber-reinforced plastic crate with rounded corners, handles and latches, designed to minimize all kinds of stress for museum objects in transit. It is insulated to protect against thermal shock and has tight joints to keep unconditioned air out. It comes in two sizes. The brochure does not give prices or an address to write to.
• Crayfourd & Sons' "Parish Cupboard" is advertised as "providing stable storage conditions for registers and records as specified in Schedule 2 of the Parochial Registers and Records Measure of 1978" (in England) but the descriptive brochure makes it pretty clear that it does nothing of the sort. It is painted steel on the outside and entirely of wood on the inside. No information is given on how the destructive gasses given off by wood in enclosed spaces are being controlled. There is a simple needle-dial hygrometer and a maximum-minimum thermometer screwed on the inside of a door, but no provision for controlling temperature, RH or variations in either. Address: 2/4/6 New Mount St., Stratford, London E15 3LR.

New Machines

• Library Binding Service, supplier in Des Moines, is now a dealer for the Potdevin glue machine made especially for polyvinyl acetate adhesive, for casemaking. Write P0 Box 1413, Des Moines, IA 50305.
• A new leaf-casting machine is now in production. It is an improved model of those designed by Esther Boyd-Alkalay. The machine is lighter, it has a larger working surface (46 x 66 cm), it is easier to operate and the price is much less ($5000 FOB factory). It is constructed by Leon Ashkenazi, under the guidance of Esther Boyd-Alkalay. For further information, please contact A.B.A. Leaf-Casting Machines, Leon Ashkenazi, Simtat Zor 3, 53205 Givataim, Israel.
• The Schärf-Fix 80 Skivers are available in the West from Alan Dietch Equipment, Foster City, CA 94404.